Hi, Mr. Nature here, introducing the spiny orb-weaver spider. They come in all sorts of bright colors, there are many, many different species of them, they’re found in warm climates all over the world–and the very biggest of them are about the size of a quarter, although most are much smaller than that.
They like to stretch out their webs in gardens, where they eat a lot of bugs that would otherwise eat your plants. They’re related to the big, bright Araneus spiders that we have here in New Jersey. All these spiders build big, showy webs, especially impressive when beaded with the morning dew.
Mrs. Nature and I once had an Araneus spider that decided to go on vacation with us, down to the shore, hitching a ride on my car. Every night she built a new web, anchored on the door and side-view mirror. When a fly or a mosquito flew into it, she pounced. When I had to open the car door she got quite upset. So I tried to avoid opening it at night, but we could hardly abbreviate our vacation on account of a spider.
Even so, it was our turn to be upset when, on the next-to-last evening of the vacation, our spider got blown out of her side-view mirror nest, never to be seen again. We were looking forward to her coming back home with us–which, after all, was where she came from in the first place.
God’s handiwork: you can even get to enjoy spiders, if you let your mind open up a little.
What came to mind, immediately, upon reading this was Proverbs 12:10 “A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal,
But even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.”
And I agree, all of these creatures are God’s Creation and deserve, at the very least, respect. There are pests that can spread disease and I don’t object to controlling their impact upon our homes and lives, but when there is no overriding issue, then I will go,out of my way not to interfere with the lives of any living creature.
Anyhow, that’s a great story about the vacation spider.
Thank you, Lee. These wonderful little spiders were always putting on a show in my backyard in South Florida, and I loved watching their meticulous web spinning. Incredible! They make a particularly intricate web. If anyone is interested in watching, there are quite a few videos on youtube. Aren’t they the cutest little spiders 🙂
In these parts we have Mantis and Walking Sticks, both of whom can be found clinging to my front door in Autumn.
The Mantis is beautiful and fascinating, as they tilt their triangular head while they watch your every move. They are said to be natural defenders of one’s garden.
The Walking Stick looks like a tiny twig that borrowed a spider’s legs.
I don’t know much about either of these creatures, but both of them tell me much about the Creator I share in common with them. What an incredible imagination has to be behind these creatures very existence. Our God has a sense of beauty and grace, something which abounds in the Mantis, and He has an amazing capacity for novelty, which perfectly describes an insect that could easily. Be mistaken for a twig.
No matter how much I learn about God, I never cease to be amazed by the depth of His intellect. I have heard, from Dr. Gerald Schroeder, that translated directly from ancient Hebrew to English, with no Greek Septuigent in between, Genesis 1:1 reads: “With wisdom, God created the heavens and the earth”. It’s a good point, Proverbs 8:22 tells us:
“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way,
Before His works of old”. All His works are wisdom, and when Lee posts his Mr. Nature pieces, he is really revealing to us his own reverence and appreciation for God’s work.
I live in a world of software and communications hardware, some of it unbelievably complex. But these man made things can be unbelievably frustrating with which to work. God’s things work! Man’s things work some of the time, but need continual updates and all sorts of work arounds. When was the last time all the animals had to gather for a firmware update?
Long before I heard of Lee Duigon, I realized that God’s stuff works. Then I found Lee (by linking into a News With Views article) and when I came to his blog I saw that he used the same phrase, and used it often. Neither of us are plagiarists, we are simply men that have come to an indentical conclusion by observing the world around us.
I don’t believe in coincidences, which is not to suggest that there was a Divine plan in my coming here, but that God is teaching any and all whom are willing to learn from Him, and if we pay attention, we will learn similar things. Here we are, roughly 2,100 miles apart, but we have learned from the very same teacher, as, I believe, many of the people that post here have learned as well. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
Amen, Unknowable. Amen!